In the production of many theatrical events, including concerts and public events, barriers or curtains are utilized to provide particular visual effects. For example, an opaque curtain may be utilized prior to the performance to conceal areas from view, while providing a decorative surface for viewing by the audience. Other visual effects may also be provided wherein, for example, transparent or semi-transparent material may be utilized to create various visual effects by front-lighting, back-lighting or by projecting images thereon. These barriers are typically retractable, partially or fully out of view by the audience and/or may be retracted or drawn in a decorative festoon pattern, such as in an Austrian-type or French-type curtain.
The retraction systems for theatrical barriers have typically included manual drawing of strings or cables from a central location, typically at one of the sides of the curtain. Some known systems have utilized motors to provide the drawing of the strings or cables from the central location. These known systems suffer from the drawback that they are not sufficiently portable, they do not provide flexibility in measuring the lengths of the strings drawing the curtain, resulting in an uneven presentation, and/or they are cumbersome or time-consuming to erect.
What is needed is a portable system that requires little time for assembly and disassembly, and allows the lines to be individually sized to facilitate easy adjustment.